Children of the Movement - Hardcover

Blake, John

3.97

35 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1556525370 ISBN 13: 9781556525377

Publisher: Lawrence Hill Books, 2004

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Profiling 24 of the adult children of the most recognizable figures in the civil rights movement, this book collects the intimate, moving stories of families who were pulled apart by the horrors of the struggle or brought together by their efforts to change America. The whole range of players is covered, from the children of leading figures like Martin Luther King Jr. and martyrs like James Earl Chaney to segregationists like George Wallace and Black Panther leaders like Elaine Brown. The essays reveal that some children are more pessimistic than their parents, whose idealism they saw destroyed by the struggle, while others are still trying to change the world. Included are such inspiring stories as the daughter of a notoriously racist Southern governor who finds her calling as a teacher in an all-black inner-city school and the daughter of a famous martyr who unexpectedly meets her mother’s killer. From the first activists killed by racist Southerners to the current global justice protestors carrying on the work of their parents, these profiles offer a look behind the public face of the triumphant civil rights movement and show the individual lives it changed in surprising ways.

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About the Author:

John Blake is a reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, for which he has written several award-winning stories on civil rights. He has received feature writing awards from the Associated Press, the Georgia Press Association, the Atlanta Association of Black Journalists, and the Society of Professional Journalists. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia.

From Publishers Weekly:

While most people contemplate civil rights struggles in the "past tense," this is a luxury that offspring of the era’s famous names cannot afford, says Blake, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter. The author spent two years tracking down the adult sons and daughters of the iconic leaders, lesser-known lieutenants, valiant activists and arch segregationists for these 24 brief, often emotional, occasionally predictable profiles. A few of the civil rights movement’s second generation writhe under the weight of history, while others thrive on self-forged paths. For the sons of Martin Luther King Jr. and Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael), the personal is always political as they confront unrelenting pressures to carry on their fathers’ monumental works. The biracial daughters of Reverend James Bevel, an influential sit-in leader and protest organizer, bemoan their absentee father, a civil rights "Daddy Dearest" who "speaks in political theory all the time" and lambastes interracial relationships. Blake excels at uncovering the questions gnawing at his subjects. George Wallace’s daughter wonders, "How do you explain your father to your own son?" The child of Black Panther Party leader Elaine Brown asks, "What do you do when the revolution never comes?" Blake does not, however, attempt to answer these nagging questions. The final chapter, on "The New Radicals"—the anti-globalization leaders who claim inspiration from their parents’ activism—presents a problematic coda. A mostly-white movement with global aims, this movement’s battle in Seattle fails to rouse the same passion as earlier struggles in Selma and Atlanta. However, this slight diversion does not upstage an otherwise insightful study of civil rights figures through the eyes and lives of their children. 65 b & w photos
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